This third part of the AWLAE series on HIV/AIDS and agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa focuses on the epidemic as a challenge to human development in general and rural development in particular. In the face of the impact of the epidemic as described in parts one and two of the series, the agricultural sector can play an important role in mitigating some of its effects. Strategies for agricultural intervention are of particular importance in sub-Saharan Africa, given the fact that most of the countries hardest hit by the epidemic are heavily reliant on agriculture. Different agricultural sector based mitigation strategies are discussed. It is further argued, however, that such interventions need to be complemented by interventions from the health and other sectors, in particular by treatment regimes including access to anti-retroviral drugs. The text is followed by an annotated bibliography.

It is now widely accepted that AIDS in not just a health issue. Malawi's recently developed Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper identifies HIV/AIDS as a key crosscutting issue, and the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework 2000-2004 calls for "an expanded, multi-sectoral national response to the epidemic." However the capacity to respond to these calls lags behind. In many sectors, policy making still proceeds as if HIV/AIDS never happened. Despite growing efforts, organizations involved in agricultural research and development generally have limited understanding of how AIDS affects agricultural systems, and even less of how agricultural development may contribute to the spread of HIV. Weakest of all is often their appreciation of what they can do, feasibly, to contribute to more effective HIV-prevention and mitigation of AIDS impacts.

"The global AIDS epidemic has caused over 25 million deaths since 1981, and there is no end in sight. It is a multidimensional, phased, long-wave crisis with impacts that will be felt for decades to come. Attempts to defeat the epidemic are conventionally grounded in the three core pillars of AIDS policy: prevention, treatment and care, and mitigation. But there is also an urgent need for a deeper understanding of the integral role that food and nutrition can and should play, and a corresponding urgency to use that understanding to improve responses at all levels.The 18 essays in AIDS, Poverty, and Hunger: Challenges and Responses contribute to such an understanding by examining the impacts of HIV and AIDS on labor markets and wages, household income and consumption dynamics, and the agricultural sector as a whole; by studying the ways in which households respond to prime-age illness, death, and food insecurity; and by exploring the implications of local responses for the roles that national and international actors must play in addressing the AIDS-hunger nexus.This book creates an opportunity for development professionals to build the conceptual links lacking in current multisectoral frameworks, assess impacts and costs, propose indicators and monitoring systems, and design appropriate food- and nutrition-related interventions and policies."